Re: floppy disk

[Andrew MacNamara <am1129@albany.edu>]

> Where is the split in the cable, with the twisted part?

Here's the cable I used:

*==========B==A========B==A
*======X===B==A===X====B==A
*==========B==A========B==A

where:
  * is the motherboard terminator
  = is cabling
  X is a twist in the cable (what is this for anyway?)
  B is one of those older floppy adapters that are female on the cable
     side, and plug onto a section of the board itself
  A is a normal floppy cable adapter. I guess the individual pin
     designations are still female, but the entire plug fits into an
     adapter on the floppy.

I tried both "A" plugs to plug in the floppy drive. Neither worked.

I also tried the known-working floppy drive from my AlphaStation 200, and
that failed in exactly the same way. And to make sure I wasn't being
fooled by weird power sources, I verified the  floppy power cable for
+5V and +12V: but still no taco. My guess now would be that the
motherboard floppy controller's dead, so my options are:

1) buy a new motherboard, or an add-on ISA/PCI floppy controller card

2) install potato from CD-ROM. The installation CD supports the XL,
doesn't it? And can't I boot off the CD-ROM, if the ARC console sees the
device and can boot the loader file off it, right? Is a floppy required
for CD booting? Finally, any success/horror stories of the Alpha CD
images?

Anyway, thanks for all the responses and support.

Andy